1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in wall and sub-floor water-control systems for receiving, channeling, collecting and expelling ground water from interior basement walls to beneath the floor of basements and over the footing or other subterranean rooms having walls, wall-supporting footings and a floor. The problems caused by the invasion of ground water into basements and other structures are numerous. Generally such water seeps into basements from the walls and perimeter of the floor at the floor-wall and wall-footing joints, and/or through floor cracks, due to external hydrostatic pressures of water in the ground.
2. Prior Art
Wall and sub-floor water drain conduit systems are known in the patent literature but most such systems present problems with respect to strength, clog-resistance, drainage capacity in both lateral and longitudinal directions over the footing, and other disadvantages which have prevented their use in commercial installations.
Reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,245,443; 4,745,716; 5,051,044 and 5,771,643 as examples of proposed wall/footing water drain panels which are installed in position at the junction of the footing and the foundation wall prior to the pouring of the basement floor. Generally, these elongate panels are fabricated of relatively thin plastic which, depending upon design, can become crushed or distorted to some extent under the weight and pressure of the wet concrete composition poured thereagainst when the basement floor is formed, thereby narrowing or closing the water-escape channels between the panels and the wall and/or the surface of the footing. Also, in most such panels water is channeled in only one direction, down the wall and outwardly over the footing to the drain, while blocking the flow of water longitudinally along the surface of the footing. This presents problems when water escape is blocked or minimized in the lateral direction for any reason.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,716 discloses a nestable wall/footing water drain panel embodiment which provides substantial structural contact between the poured basement floor and both the foundation and the footing and which permits water escape in both the lateral and longitudinal directions through narrow conduits. The barrier panels of this patent are either cut or bent to form an upper wall diverter panel section and a lower footing diverter panel section in which the narrow water-escape conduits must be aligned and non-crimped. There is no planar or flat longitudinal conduit-free area to permit the panel to be bent or molded at an angle without interfering with drainage conduits nor is there any planar or linear longitudinal conduit-free area at the discharge edge of the lower panel section to prevent or block entry of the concrete floor composition into the narrow water-escape conduits.
Finally, reference is made of U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,821 which discloses a system for protecting exterior foundation walls from water from backfill, which comprises covering the walls with a water barrier film having projections for spacing the backfill from the surface of the wall. The thin barrier film is rollable, and has a bottom section which is provided with an embossed fold line or bending area to allow for transition between the vertical foundation wall and the horizontal exterior footing. The barrier film excludes water from penetration to the wall rather than admitting water and channeling it over the footing to a drain. Also, the barrier is not molded in L-shaped rigid configuration.
The present invention provides a nestable water-escape barrier panel which is molded in a 90xc2x0 configuration, to conform to the angle between a foundation wall and its supporting footing, and which comprises a plurality of evenly-spaced frustroconical or tapered polygonal recessed well areas, such as pyramidal areas, which project from the outer surfaces of the barrier panel to provide a plurality of relatively small support areas with the wall and the footing, between which water is able to flow freely in all directions down the foundation wall and over the surface of the footing into a conventional footing drain or drain tile, or aggregate drain bed.
The tapered recessed well areas have larger openings at the inside surface of the barrier panel to receive the wet concrete composition and be filled thereby by displacing air as the basement floor is poured and flows over the wall footings and against the basement wall to a level below the top of the barrier panel. When the concrete floor cures, the concrete within the wells or recesses provides a plurality of evenly-spaced posts which engage the basement wall and the footing, against the thickness of the barrier panel, to provide high structural strength against any flattening or distortion of the barrier panel or movement of the basement wall, as may be caused by lateral soil pressures pushing the wall against the floor, or the weight of the floor against the footing.